Go-ahead for $2bn Traveston dam plan
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in Environmental Impact Statement, Green Preferences, Peter Garrett, QLD State Election
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Greg Roberts
March 23, 2009
THE Bligh Government will push ahead with its plan to build the Traveston dam, despite suffering some electoral pain from the controversial project.
The Government also confirmed it would proceed with plans to pump recycled sewage and trade waste to Brisbane’s Wivenhoe Dam when southeast Queensland storage levels fell to 40per cent.
Former sustainability minister Andrew McNamara blamed the Traveston dam for his defeat in the seat of Hervey Bay, which is downstream of the $2 billion project. “We have resolved the question of whether the dam is a vote-changing issue - it certainly is,” Mr McNamara said. “It was a very big factor in how people voted.”
The dam was blamed for Labor’s loss of the Sunshine Coast seats of Kawana and Noosa at the 2006 election.
The Greens yesterday demanded the Bligh Government scrap the dam after claiming that their preferences delivered a raft of seats to Labor.
The Greens’ overall vote of 8.2 per cent was their highest in Queensland. Greens spokesman Drew Hutton said 10 Labor MPs, including Treasurer Andrew Fraser and Water Minister Craig Wallace, owed their seats to Greens preferences.
Queensland ALP director Anthony Chisholm said Greens preferences had delivered the seat of Everton to Labor and could be decisive in four other undecided seats.
Veteran Nationals senator Ron Boswell said the preferences deal that delivered Greens preferences to Labor in 14 key seats demonstrated that the two parties were “one and the same”.
stevem
Swan ‘will have to bail out states’
Article from: AAP
March 25, 2009
STATE governments will have to be bailed out by the Commonwealth because of their inability to raise money on financial markets, the federal Opposition says.
The Federal Government’s unlimited deposit guarantee had undermined demand for state and semi-government bonds, which the states are using to raise funds for vital infrastructure projects.
The predicament will be discussed at a meeting in Canberra today between federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and his state and territory counterparts.
Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the deposit guarantee had made it far worse for the states.
“Essentially the states have failed to raise money significantly since Queensland lost its triple-A rating a few weeks ago,” he told the Fairfax Radio Network.
”(The Government) has to bail out the states because they cannot raise money.”
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Reader Comments (1)
The Greens' overall vote of 8.2 per cent was their highest in Queensland.
Drew Hutton is disguising the truth a little bit.
It is true that 8.2% is higher than their total state-wide vote in 2006 - 8.0%. However, in 2006 the Greens only had candidates in 75 seats, whereas this time they ran in all 89 seats.
The average Green vote in 2006 in the 75 seats where they had a candidate was 9.3%.
From 9.3 to 8.2 is a sizeable swing against the Greens, and comparable to the swing against Labor in relative terms.
All data from http://www.ecq.qld.gov.au